Paper Panda's Guide to Papercutting - Two Free Templates

Congratulations to Jonnie, shockingsilk and omiyage_ca. Stay tuned for another giveaway (international) that's coming up soon!

Perhaps you are one of the more than 270,000 followers of Paper Panda Papercuts on Facebook. If so, you're already well-acquainted with the friendly, personable posts written by Louise Firchau - aka one half of the Paper Panda duo. She and her husband Ryan have built a strong art business by combining his talent for design and photography, and hers for cutting paper and teaching with a folksy charm - they're a dynamic force in the papercutting world. You might recall this post about Paper Panda from a few years back when their FB page had just half as many Likes, yet they were already wildly popular.

Louise recently released her second papercutting book for Search Press, Paper Panda's Guide to Papercutting - Paper Panda & Friends. Her conversational, yet informative voice will lead you through the ins and outs of creating papercut art pieces that can proudly be given as gifts... if you can bear to part with them!

Louise Firchau

Geared to beginners and to those who are looking to improve their papercutting skills, chapters include Tools and Materials, Getting Started, Techniques, Design and Inspiration, Creating a Design, and Projects, along with helpful sections on adding dimension by layering, making infills, cutting curves, lettering, working with positive and negative images, finishing, and framing. Even copyright is addressed.

In addition to five of her own papercuttings, there are template designs - five each - by three equally talented papercutters, Sarah Trumbauer,
Louise Dyer and Suzy Taylor, making a total of twenty. Full templates printed on high-quality art paper can be cut from the book and reproduced as many times as you wish.

You'll read about what inspired the designs and learn from tips and step-by-step photographs provided by all of the designers. For information and advice on beginning papercutting, click on each
of the three informative page spreads you see here, as shared from the book by Search Press, to more easily read
the text.

Search Press has also shared two tattoo-inspired templates from the book for use by All Things Paper readers. Sky Pirates and Refuse to Sink were designed by Louise Dyer.

Sky Pirates

This design was inspired by my mum; we call her the magpie, as she is
attracted to anything that shines. This design is a tricky one and I would
suggest that you attempt it when you have had some practice at cutting paper. Don’t be afraid, though.
Approach it with confidence; it is, after all, only paper.
I cut this piece as shown in black poster paper (see Paper Panda’s
tips for cutting with poster paper on page 14). It’s only 100gsm, which makes
it a very thin and delicate paper to work with. It is white on one side for
printing or drawing your design, and black on the finished side. You can get it
in a matt finish (my favourite) or in pearl, which gives a nice shimmer. Black
paper can be tricky to begin with, but with practice can yield wonderful results.
I like to tape my design onto my self-healing cutting mat using
low-tack masking tape; this prevents any accidental tears or catching. This is
my personal preference, but find a way that works for you. If you tape it down
to your mat like this, turn your mat to cut rather than the papercut itself. -- Louise Dyer

Refuse to Sink

This design is heavily influenced by my love of tattoos. Swallows
are historically used in tattoos for sailors, each swallow representing 5,000
nautical miles of sailing experience; the most experienced sailors would have
two swallows.
Swallows are also home birds; they return to the same location
year after year to mate, nest and rest, and for this reason were used to ensure
a sailor would return to his home safely.
I have cut this design in black poster paper as with my previous
designs, but it would also look fantastic cut in white, perhaps backed in sea
blues. The positive message given by this design makes it a great gift. -- Louise Dyer

To obtain the templates, click on the black and white images above, one at a time. You will be taken to Flickr where you can click the download arrow located in the lower right corner of the page's black section. Save to your computer and print after referring to Louise's tips on paper choices above.

To enter on this blog post, simply leave a comment. Note that Blogger does not allow me to see
the email address you type into the form with your name, so you must include an email address within your comment in order to be contacted if you win. If spam is a concern, type your address like this: janedoe at gmail dot com

You may also enter on Instagram as long as your account is not set to private. Enter at one or both places by the end of Saturday, August 5, 2017. Three winners will be chosen at random and announced at the top of this post and on the Instagram giveaway photo as soon as they have been notified. Good luck!

Comments

This is beautiful. I've had an interest in paper cutting for a long while and just didn't know how to get started. Glad I found the Paper Panda!! Thank you for a giveaway also! rocknutzaz at yahoo dot com.

ooooh! I am super interested in papercutting. I enrolled in a papercutting course at my arts college, but had to drop it after the first class due to an overloaded schedule. :/ But, sometimes self-teaching with some guides and helpful tips can be really satisfying as well. I would love to get a chance to read this book. :)kira.lantz at gmail dot com